DDoS attack sidelines The Pirate Bay, Anonymous to blame?

Update: Anonymous has denied any involvement in the DDoS attack on The Pirate Bay.

In what can only be described as a bit ironic, The Pirate Bay has been taken down not by court order of ISP blockades but by a DDoS attack of unknown origin. The popular torrent sharing site has been sidelined for the better part of 24 hours on a worldwide scale and as of writing, it’s still inaccessible.

It’s not unusual for TPB to experience downtime, even on a monthly basis but the site usually returns within a few hours. TorrentFreak spoke with a Bay inside which informed them that the site is being subjected to a DDoS attack. The source of the attack is unknown but as the publication points out, the timing seems rather suspect.

Last week, the site publically criticized Anonymous on Facebook for carrying out a similar attack on Virgin Media, the first ISP to block access to the site through court order. The torrent center said that they do not encourage these types of actions as they believe in the open and free internets where anyone can express their views. They proclaimed that DDoS attacks and ISP blockades were one in the same – a form of censorship that they do not condone.

It’s pure speculation at this point whether Anonymous is behind the attack or not. Either way, the source that spoke with TorrentFreak said the problem could be fixed within the next few hours. Of course, there are alternate methods to access the site if you can’t stand to wait any longer.